---
title: "Mystery Machine"

meaning: "Nostalgic sickness: pre-pandemic beach runs and garage band local bars: can't afford to see friends, steal a van, Mystery Machine back to what you're missing."

year: 2020
release: "Masks and Monsters"
releaseType: "album"

artist: "Scoobert Doobert"
artistId: "#scoobert"

credits: "Written, performed, mixed, and mastered by Luke Francis Walton. Album art by Gentle Giant Illustrations."

spotify: "https://open.spotify.com/album/13zzM1QEnrvJ7kRwUGNIFw"
officialVideo: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_mbXWe1JFA"
apple: "https://music.apple.com/us/album/mystery-machine/1526427944?i=1526428041"

themes: ["nostalgia", "friendship", "pandemic", "Masks and Monsters", "cartoon", "music"]

isrc: QZES82028822
isrcSource: soundexchange
lyrics: |
  Summertime
  Dropping by your house
  Nothing to do now
  And I know that
  You're down
  To go down to the beach with me

  Anytime
  Grab you on the way
  Burrito everyday
  Pick up all of our friends
  And we'll pick up another day

  Stir crazy need to see my dudes
  Break in the church
  Jam after school
  Why can't we run it back?

  I wanna take a trip to see ya
  Though I know you're busy
  Maybe I could get all of our friends
  To join and force your hand

  Though I know I
  Need money to afford to see ya
  Need a sugar daddy
  Too ugly to get paid to make out
  Need a better plan

  Oh I got the
  Nostalgic sickness
  The nostalgic sickness

  We made a band
  Jammed in your garage
  Toured local bars
  And we tried to keep playing
  But playing was all it was
  We wrote a song
  Dreaming of the stars
  But we stayed in local bars
  And I guess that I never grew my way out of it

  tir crazy need to see my dudes
  Break in the church
  Jam after school
  Why can't we run it back?

  I wanna take a trip to see ya
  Though I know you're busy
  Maybe I could get all of our friends
  To join and force your hand

  Though I know I
  Need money to afford to see ya
  Need a sugar daddy
  Too ugly to get paid to make out
  Need a better plan

  Oh I got the
  Nostalgic sickness
  The nostalgic sickness

  Why would ya wanna know the future
  Why learn the way it gonna hurt ya
  Time machine made for reminiscing
  Let's head on back to what you're missing now

  I wanna take a trip to see ya
  Though I know you're busy
  Maybe I could get all of our friends
  To join and force your hand

  Though I know I
  Need money to afford to see ya
  Need a sugar daddy
  Too ugly to get paid to make out
  Need a better plan

  Maybe I could
  Work for a bank for twenty years
  And save a ton of money
  Forget that I had friends to start with
  I could steal a van
  Mystery machine

  I wanna take a trip to see ya
  Though I know you're busy
  Maybe I could get all of our friends
  To join and force your hand

  Oh I got the
  Nostalgic sickness
  The nostalgic sickness
  Nostalgic sickness
  The nostalgic sickness
  Oh I got the
  Nostalgic sickness
  Nostalgic

draft: false

---

Track seventeen on [*Masks and Monsters*](/albums/masks-and-monsters/). **Luke solo**, North Park lockdown, **August 2020**. Penultimate before [*Derrida Makes a Différance*](/songs/derrida-makes-a-differance/) closes the LP; [Last Day Deaf](https://lastdaydeaf.com/91-qa-with-scoobert-doobert/) tied the naming story to this title. The Mystery Machine works here as van, as band vehicle, and as time machine pointed backward.

It opens in pre-pandemic San Diego freedom (*summertime / dropping by your house*, *burrito everyday / pick up all of our friends*) and a teenage ritual the lockdown can't reach: *stir crazy need to see my dudes / jam after school / why can't we run it back?* (the second pass has *tir crazy*, the DistroKid spelling preserved). Same *stir crazy* vocabulary as [*Pandemic Blues*](/songs/pandemic-blues/), aimed at the missing crew rather than moldy bread. The reunion turns into a fantasy priced out, self-deprecation as planning: *need money to afford to see ya / need a sugar daddy / too ugly to get paid to make out*.

The chorus names the condition (*oh I got the nostalgic sickness*) and lets it stack at the end, a before-times ache on a pandemic record. Verse two is band biography and Luke's actual lane: *toured local bars / tried to keep playing but playing was all it was*, stars dreamed and bars stayed, *I guess I never grew my way out of it*. The closing scheme escalates the capitalism satire into cartoon theft: *work for a bank for twenty years / forget that I had friends to start with / I could steal a van / mystery machine*.

Same friend-yearning as [*Quarantine and Chill*](/songs/quarantine-and-chill/) and the [*Happy Birthday*](/songs/happy-birthday/) drive-by; same cartoon mask as [*Snuggle With Shaggy*](/songs/snuggle-with-shaggy/) and [*Shaggy's Anthem*](/songs/shaggys-anthem/). It hands off to Derrida for cosmic nihilism, but this one is local myth first.

---